Jakarta – Protestors staged a rally in front of the global security service company PT G4S office on Jl. Ciputat Raya, South Jakarta, on Monday, and threatened to continue demonstrating for a month until their demands were met.
In their demand for better industrial relations, the protesters, who claimed to represent more than 700 security guards employed by PT G4S, occupied part of the street, causing traffic to back up to as far as Ciputat, South Tangerang.
"We don't want to rally like this, disturbing people and the authorities. But this is PT G4S's own doing," their leader, Kardinal who also heads the Indonesian Metal Workers Federation's (FSPMI) Jakarta branch, said on Monday, kompas.com reported. "We will rally for a month until our demands are met."
He said most of the workers claimed they had been forced by the company to renew their contracts three times. "[After the third contract renewal] the company then moved them to G4S subsidiaries," said Kardinal.
He added that the striking workers did not receive additional benefits despite the companies that they were assigned to guard being billed tens of millions of rupiah.
Furthermore, the company also tried to break up the workers' union by firing one of its members unilaterally. "One of our leaders was fired arbitrarily, even though the Jakarta Manpower Agency has said that the process of firing someone must be fair," Kardinal said.
Jakarta Manpower Agency head of manpower monitoring Khadik Triyanto said the agency was mediating between PT G4S and its striking workers. "It's being handled by the South Jakarta Manpower Agency," Khadik said. (ami)